The 17-string koto (十七絃 or 十七弦,Jūshichi-gen, lit. "seventeen strings") is a traditional Japanese musical instrument, a zither with seventeen strings. It is a variant of the koto, which traditionally has thirteen strings.

The instrument is also known as jūshichi-gensō (十七絃箏), "seventeen-stringed koto", or "bass koto" (although kotos with a greater number of strings also exist). The jūshichi-gen was invented in 1921 by Michio Miyagi,[1] a musician who felt that the standard koto lacked the range he sought. His seventeen-stringed creation, sometimes described as a "bass koto", has a deeper sound and requires specialized plectra (picks worn attached to the player's fingers with which the strings are plucked). Though his original jūshichi-gen was considerably larger than a normal koto, seventeen-stringed koto of a normal koto size are more common today; these presumably do not have as deep a sound.

Bass Koto is similarly made from the Paulownia[1]tomentosa (kiri) wood but the thickness of the wood so taken is approximately twice than that of a single koto. The wood is dried and treated by the traditional method until it gets good for construction. The strings used are made up of silk threads which are yellow in colour. They give a deep sound. These strings are tied from one end up to another one and a platform is created made of ivory. Then, the strings are tied over small cylindrical holders with holes and tied very tightly to the downside. The bridges (jī) are also even bold than the common bridges used in koto. The plectra used are made from special ivory so that plucking can be done easily. During playing there is a danger that the bridges can fall from their place, but the strings are tied so that the bridges cannot fall off but can be moved. Some of the players also used to colour some specific bridges so that while playing, they would not fall.

Players also invented new techniques for playing a Bass-Koto. It uses more use of the left hand as it produces a deep sound which lasts for a longer time. This helps to create more pitches at one string. The strings are also plucked over the cylindrical holder to create a sudden shrill. The area of koto towards the left side is also plucked by left hand. This creates a very good and humbling tune.

1.
Zither
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Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The word zither is a German rendering of the Latin word cithara, historically, it has been applied to any instrument of the cittern family, or an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat body – similar to a psaltery. This article describes the second variety, like a guitar or lute, a zithers body serves as a resonating chamber, but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty, in modern common usage the term zither refers to three specific instruments, the concert zither, its variant the Alpine zither, and the chord zither. Concert and Alpine zithers are found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia. Emigration from these areas during the 19th century introduced the concert, chord zithers similar to the instrument in the photograph also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th century. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern and it is not fully understood how zitter or zither came to be applied to the instruments in this article as well as German varieties of the cittern. The Hornbostel-Sachs system, an academic instrument classification method, also uses the term zither, pedal steel guitars, lap guitars, and keyboard instruments like the clavichord, harpsichord and piano also fall within this broad categorical use. The word has also used in conjunction with brand varieties of other string instruments. The earliest known surviving instrument of the family is a Chinese guqin. Increasing interest in music has brought wider recognition to these other zither family members. Many of these instruments have been sampled electronically, and are available in instrument banks for music synthesizers, some of these employed movable bridges similar to the Japanese koto, used for retuning the drone strings. The Alpine Scheitholt furnishes an example of this type of European zither. By the late 18th century, two varieties of European concert zither had developed, known as the Salzburg zither. Both styles are found in concert zithers today, although the Salzburg style has become by far the most common. The zither became a folk music instrument in Bavaria and Austria and. Viennese zitherist Johann Petzmayer became one of the outstanding virtuosi on these early instruments and his ideas were not, however, widely accepted until 1862, when luthier Max Amberger of Munich fabricated a new zither based on Weigels design. At this point the zither had reached something very close to its modern concert form, within a relatively short time the new design had largely replaced the old Volkszither throughout central Europe, particularly in the Alpine countries

2.
Koto (instrument)
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The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument derived from the Chinese zheng, and similar to the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum, and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the instrument of Japan. Koto are about 180 centimetres length, and made from kiri wood and they have 13 strings that are usually strung over 13 movable bridges along the width of the instrument. There is also a 17-string koto variant, players can adjust the string pitches by moving the white bridges before playing. To play the instrument, the strings are plucked using three finger picks, otherwise known as plectra, the character for koto is 箏, although 琴 is often used. However, 琴 usually refers to another instrument, the kin. 箏, however, many times the character 箏 is used in titles, while 琴 is used in telling the number of kotos used. The ancestor of the koto was the Chinese zheng and was first introduced to Japan from China in the 7th and 8th century, the first known version had five strings, which eventually increased to seven strings. This particular instrument is known throughout Asia but in different forms, the Japanese koto, which is a relative to the Chinese zheng, the Korean gayageum, and this variety of instrument came in two basic forms, a zither that had bridges and zithers without bridges. When the koto was first imported to Japan, the native word koto was a term for any. Over time the definition of koto could not describe the variety of these stringed instruments. The azumagoto or yamatogoto was called the wagon, the kin no koto was called the kin, the modern koto originates from the gakusō used in Japanese court music. It was a popular instrument among the wealthy, the instrument koto was considered a romantic one, some literary and historical records indicate that solo pieces for koto existed centuries before sōkyoku, the music of the solo koto genre, was established. According to Japanese literature, the koto was used as imagery, in one part of The Tales of Genji, Genji falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman, who he has never seen before, after he hears her playing the koto from a distance. Perhaps the most important influence on the development of koto was Yatsuhashi Kengyo and he was a gifted blind musician from Kyoto who changed the limited selection of six songs to a brand new style of koto music which he called kumi uta. Yatsuhashi changed the Tsukushi goto tunings, which were based on gagaku ways of tuning, and with this change, Yatsuhashi Kengyo is now known as the Father of Modern Koto. A smaller influence in the evolution of the koto is found in the inspiration of a woman named Keiko Nosaka, Keiko Nosaka, felt confined by playing a koto with just 13 strings, so she created new versions of the instrument with 20 or more strings. Japanese developments in bridgeless zithers include the one-stringed koto and two-stringed koto, around the 1920s, Goro Morita created a new version of the two-stringed koto, on this koto, one would push down buttons above the metal strings like the western autoharp. It was named the taishōgoto after the Taishō period, at the beginning of the Meiji Period, western music was introduced to Japan

3.
Plectrum
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A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, in harpsichords, the plectra are attached to the jack mechanism. A plectrum for electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, the size, shape and width may vary considerably. Thin items such as coins, bread clips or broken compact discs. Banjo and guitar players may wear a metal or plastic thumb pick mounted on a ring, guitar picks are made of a variety of materials, including celluloid, metal, and rarely other exotic materials such as turtle shell, but today delrin is the most common. For other instruments in the day most players use plastic plectra but a variety of other materials, including wood. Many guitarists also use the pick and the remaining right-hand fingers simultaneously to combine some advantages of flat picking and this technique is called hybrid picking. A plectrum of the type is often called a pick. The plectra for the Japanese biwa and shamisen can be large. Plectra used for Chinese instruments such as the sanxian were formerly made of animal horn, click on the images to view them in full size. In a harpsichord, there is a plectrum for each string. These plectra are very small, often only about a long, about 1.5 millimeters wide. The plectrum is gently tapered, being narrowest at the plucking end, the top surface of the plectrum is flat and horizontal, and is held in the tongue of the jack, which permits it to pluck moving upward and pass almost silently past the string moving downward. In the historical period of harpsichord construction plectra were made of feather quills. In Italy, some makers used vulture quills, other Italian harpsichords employed plectra of leather. In late French harpsichords by the great builder Pascal Taskin, peau de buffle, modern harpsichords frequently employ plectra made with plastic, specifically the plastic known as acetal. Some plectra are of the variety of acetal, sold by DuPont under the name Delrin, while others are of the copolymer variety. Harpsichord technicians and builders generally use the names to refer to these materials

4.
Paulownia tomentosa
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Paulownia tomentosa is a deciduous tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to central and western China. Paulownia tomentosa is an extremely fast-growing tree, and is a persistent exotic invasive in North America, the generic name Paulownia honors Anna Pavlovna of Russia. The specific epithet tomentosa is a Latin word meaning ‘covered in hairs’ and this tree grows 10–25 m tall, with large heart-shaped to five-lobed leaves 15–40 cm across, arranged in opposite pairs on the stem. On young growth, the leaves may be in whorls of three and be much bigger than the leaves on more mature growth, the leaves can be mistaken for those of the catalpa. The very fragrant flowers are produced before the leaves in spring, on panicles 10–30 cm long. The fruit is a dry egg-shaped capsule 3–4 cm long, containing tiny seeds. The seeds are winged and disperse by wind and water, pollarded trees do not produce flowers, as these only form on mature wood. Paulownia tomentosa can survive wildfire because the roots can regenerate new and it is tolerant of pollution and it is not fussy about soil type. For this reason it functions ecologically as a pioneer plant and its nitrogen-rich leaves provide good fodder and its roots prevent soil erosion. Eventually, Paulownia is succeeded by taller trees that shade it and it cannot thrive in the shade of other trees. Paulownia tomentosa is cultivated as a tree in parks and gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit, the characteristic large size of the young growth is exploited by gardeners, by pollarding the tree and ensuring there is vigorous new growth every year, massive leaves are produced. These are popular in the style of gardening which uses large-foliaged. In China, the tree is planted at the birth of a girl, the fast-growing tree matures when she does. When she is eligible for marriage the tree is cut down, carving the wood of Paulownia is an art form in Japan and China. In legend, it is said that the phoenix will only land on the Empress Tree, several Asian string instruments are made from P. tomentosa, including the Japanese koto and Korean gayageum zithers. The soft, lightweight seeds were used as a packing material by Chinese porcelain exporters in the 19th century. Packing cases would often leak or burst open in transit and scatter the seeds along rail tracks, some geranylflavonoids can be found in P. tomentosa

5.
Silk
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Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity, Silk is produced by several insects, but generally only the silk of moth caterpillars has been used for textile manufacturing. There has been research into other types of silk, which differ at the molecular level. Silk is mainly produced by the larvae of insects undergoing complete metamorphosis, Silk production also occurs in Hymenoptera, silverfish, mayflies, thrips, leafhoppers, beetles, lacewings, fleas, flies, and midges. Other types of arthropod produce silk, most notably various arachnids such as spiders, the word silk comes from Old English sioloc, from Greek σηρικός serikos, silken, ultimately from an Asian source. Several kinds of silk, which are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm, have been known and used in China, South Asia. However, the scale of production was far smaller than for cultivated silks. Thus, the way to obtain silk suitable for spinning into textiles in areas where commercial silks are not cultivated was by tedious. Commercial silks originate from reared silkworm pupae, which are bred to produce a silk thread with no mineral on the surface. The pupae are killed by either dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge or by piercing them with a needle. These factors all contribute to the ability of the cocoon to be unravelled as one continuous thread. Wild silks also tend to be difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm. Genetic modification of domesticated silkworms is used to facilitate the production of more types of silk. Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, the earliest example of silk fabric is from 3630 BC, and it was used as wrapping for the body of a child from a Yangshao culture site in Qingtaicun at Xingyang, Henan. Legend gives credit for developing silk to a Chinese empress, Leizu, because of its texture and lustre, silk rapidly became a popular luxury fabric in the many areas accessible to Chinese merchants. Silk was in demand, and became a staple of pre-industrial international trade. In July 2007, archaeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiangxi province, Silk is described in a chapter on mulberry planting by Si Shengzhi of the Western Han

6.
Michio Miyagi
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Michio Miyagi was a Japanese musician, famous for his koto playing. He lost his sight in 1902, when he was 8 years old, in 1907 he moved with his family to Incheon, in southern Korea. When he was 14 years old, in 1909 he finished his first composition, at 18 he reached the rank of kengyo, the highest rank for a koto performer. Miyagi moved to Tokyo in 1917, and in 1919 he did his first recital of his own compositions, in 1920, he took part in the Great Recital of the New Japanese Music with Seifu Yoshida and Nagayo Motoori. He was reckoned as an authority in the new Japanese music, in 1925 he participated in one of the first radio presentations in Japan, and in 1929 he signed an exclusive contract with Victor Record Company, current JVC. He composed his most famous piece, Haru no Umi, in 1929, in 1930 he became a lecturer at the Tokyo College of Music, until he was appointed professor in 1937. In 1932 French violinist Renee Chemet visited Japan on a concert tour, after hearing Miyagi perform Haru no Umi Chemet arranged the shakuhachi part for violin, which she and Miyagi then recorded for distribution in Japan and Europe. He gained worldwide notability after the issuing of his albums in Japan, United States, after the Second World War, in 1948, he was appointed to the Academy of Arts of Japan. On 25 June 1956 he died after falling from a train in Kariya and he wrote more than 500 pieces, improved Japanese string instruments, and invented new kotos with 17 strings and 80 strings. He was also an essayist, and published more than ten books including Ame no Nenbutsu, the Michio Miyagi Memorial Hall was opened in 1978 on the site where he spent his last years. Prescott, Anne, Miyagi Michio, the father of modern Koto music his life, works and innovations, chiba Junnosuke, Oto ni Ikiru, Miyagi Michio Den, Tokyo, Kodansha,1992